This week on Trapping Across America we will be talking about how to make pocket sets for raccoon, mink, otter and muskrat trapping. Pocket sets are a simple set, but like everything in trapping the devil is in the details. We cover what a standard pocket set, why they were used so much back in the day. What they were designed for and it’s not raccoons. Once we get a base line for a pocket set, we take the set and use different trap placements in areas of the set to catch different target animals. What we as trappers can do to help our sets not get flooded out and still catch the most fur.

Once we cover a lot of the basic bases of water trapping with pocket sets, we get into more advanced way to use a pocket set to catch more than one animal in one night. catching 2-5 raccoons off of one set in a night is not a pipe dream, but a reality if the trapper goes beyond the basics and normal way of thinking.

Our sponsors this week for Trapping Radio are:

1. Okie Cable & Trap supply. ” Oklahoma’s Premier Snare and Trapping Supplier” If you looking for trapping supplies you should check out their web site as you listen to tonight’s show. You can reach them at 918-429-4648 or www.oktrapsupply.com

2. F&T Fur Harvester’s Trading post, “Everything you need for Trapping, Hunting with Hounds and Predator Calling. If you looking to get your hands on the Freedom Brands Wolf Fang disposable stake, you can now get them from F&T. You can reach them at www.fntpost.com or 989-727-8727.

Support our sponsors because they help us bring you Trapping Radio.

PREDATOR CONTROL GROUP’S product of the week is the video, Lure and Bait Making, tips, tricks and methods. This is a full four-hour training course on making lures and baits, bases, oils, glands, pasteurizing urine, making your own fish oil (not rotting it down), raccoon trailing scents, some formulas and much more. If you are thinking about or already playing with scents, this will save a ton of money in the long run.

Please check out another of Predator Control Groups web sites ….How to trap coyotes and follow Clint Locklear on his Facebook page.

Wes Sattler

Good show Clint! You have been doing this show for a while now and I have to say thanks. You have come up with some real good topics for trapping radio. It takes some thought to put one of these shows together. I have not missed one of these shows. Even if things are busy and home and I cant get out to trap, listening to the show fires me up and fills the void.

Clint, I have used the multi trap system on mink. Make a baited pocket set and shave the bank on each side and place a trap on each side with the loose jaw against the wall. Also in Ohio and other midwestern states most of our coon are caught between the woods and the cornfields using dogproof traps in the middle of their trails using 3 traps per trail. You mentioned Bud Hall and he made his pockets 18″ deep just wide enough for a 1 1/2 coilspring. He used a very large chunk of carp in the back of the hole the size of both your fists. He did not pin the bait. There was 1 ” of water over the trap all the way back to the back of the hole and the bait was touching the water and the blood and oil would leach out of the pocket and trickle downstream along the bank. The trap was just INSIDE the hole and he used 4′ of chain and a coyote grapple shoved into the mud. He always put grass over the mouth of the hole to hide it from trap thieves. He called the set “the invisible set”. He caught 300 mink a year using this set. In rocky streams He would make rock tunnels blocking off the back of the hole and placing the trap inside the tunnel with grass over the hole. These sets slay the mink. I took instruction from him in May of 1992. I try to catch the coon upstream or downstream from the set. When the coon hole up in cold weather this set shines and will really clean the mink off of a creek. He trapped the feeder creeks and ponds and stayed off the big water because of flooding. On a large male mink the distance from the nose to his front feet is quite long. Shallow pockets will miss most mink. I have caught mink in Ohio 5 # and I have talked with a friend that has caught 7 pounders. It is hard to find a stretcher for these monsters. I would highly reccomend trappers to take personal instruction. Life is short and instruction will pay for itself the first year. When taking instruction take a video camera and listen and let the instructor talk. I have pictures of Bud Hall making sets and I look at them often. Bud Hall was an awesome fox trapper also catching 800 red fox a year. O’Gorman says Bud Hall was the best mink and fox trapper in the world. Bud passed away and he left his mark on the world and in my heart. I paid $250.00 for a 2 day course with Bud. That was cheap compared to what I got out of it and all the mink I have caught and my son has caught. I am planning on taking coyote instruction next. Put your whole heart into trapping and you will catch more fur. God Bless every one. Todd Campbell

admin

I normally use a T-bar stake, metal or carbon that is 20-24 inch long. I just run the trap swivel down on stake and run a tight chain to keep raccoon from reaching the bank or some thing they get a hold of. My coon traps a strong and laminated.

I would probally use disposables stakes today if i where to run a water coon line today. The key for this to work is strong trap with wide smooth jaws. All coon coil springs should have #2 music wires on them. The coon is a very stong animal.